AAP protests outside Election Commission over 'EVM tampering'

During his more than 40-minute live presentation, Saurabha Bhardwaj, an engineer with worldwide expereince, entered votes in the EVM and then demonstrated how votes cast for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) went to the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP).

Days before the proposed meet, the Aam Admi Party had staged a demonstration on hacking a "voting machine" in the Delhi Assembly.

The Election Commission, which has called an all-party meeting on EVMs, dismissed Bharadwaj's assertions.

The poll panel intends to use Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) units attached with EVMs in the coming elections for greater transparency and to keep voters' confidence in the electoral process.

"Why is it that all the technical defects in EVMs that have come to light recently, say in Bhind or Dholpur, favoured only the BJP?" "During the meeting, the whole procedure and challenges would be shared with all parties and their suggestions would be invited", a senior EC official said.

Couple of hours after the demonstration, the ECI released a statement debunking, yet again, any possibility of EVM tampering.

Zaidi also said the poll panel has "no favourites" and it was equidistant from all parties. Poonawalla suggested to the EC to tally the EVM and the VVPAT votes in 50 per cent of the constituencies in the future.

"Such so-called demonstration on extraneous and duplicate gadgets which are not owned by the EC can not be exploited to influence our intelligent citizens and electorate to assail or vilify the EVMs used by the Commission in its electoral process", it said. A party source said the EC was unlikely to accede to the request for access to EVMs.

Besides talking about the manufacturing details of the EVMs, ECI's status report also skips the mere possibility of changing the microcontroller, as it is claimed by Kejriwal.

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Mayawati had raised apprehensions about tampering of EVMs the day Uttar Pradesh assembly election results were out.

"What they used is a prototype of an EVM". However, the only way to secure these against manipulations is to have a paper trail system. "At least if we switch back to ballot paper there will be no apprehensions left", it added.

Rubbishing the claim that the EVMs are tamper-proof, Congress leader Digvijaya Singh said, in the affidavit submit by the Government in the Aadhaar case, it has mentioned that in today's world of technology, no machine is full proof which can not be tampered.

Sacked Delhi Minister Kapil Mishra shows copies of his complaint alleging irregularities in the AAP prior to approaching the CBI.

Election Commission of India (ECI) has scheduled an All Political Parties meeting on 12th May 2017 for EVM Issues and other Electoral Reforms.